


"Three's A Crowd"

by bakedgarnet



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Future Vision, Spoilers for "Cry For Help", Spoilers for "Love Letters"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-19 17:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14878334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bakedgarnet/pseuds/bakedgarnet
Summary: Tumblr Prompt: Pearl hearing about the "three's a crowd" line from Love Letters and thinking that Garnet will never love her, but with a happy ending"Pearl couldn’t help but wonder what it felt like to be so utterly complete— so whole— at all times. Would they end up as Sardonyx permanently decades down the line like Ruby and Sapphire? Was that what Garnet could see if Pearl only said yes?"





	"Three's A Crowd"

Eavesdropping was— bad. Pearl knew this. She felt the guilt slither up the back of her neck like tendrils of ice, but she was coming from the temple and Garnet, Steven and Connie were deep in what seemed to be intense conversation.

 

And Pearl was curious.

 

There was no harm in that, right?

 

Especially when the very first thing she heard was that the insignificant human with lanky limbs and a theatrical demeanor who brought the mail for Steven had written a _letter_ for Garnet. As far as Pearl knew, humans had stopped writing letters to each other ages ago with the invention of the devices that Steven and Connie were always glued to.

 

And then Pearl had heard the letter out loud and something inside of her was filled with mirth. A sick, vindictive side that couldn’t wait until the poor boy’s gall to assume that _he_ was good enough for Garnet would be brought to reckoning.

 

“I think Jamie is asking you out— on a date!” Connie exclaimed, the sound of her voice becoming laced with excitement from where Pearl could hear around the corner of the other room.

 

Her excitement was misplaced. The reason why came from Steven’s mouth almost immediately.

 

“Well that ain’t happening,” Steven said, a finality to his voice that Pearl nodded along with.

 

“Nope,” Garnet confirmed.

 

“Well why not?” Connie asked, genuine confusion lacing her tone. Pearl placed delicate fingers over her smiling lips to stop the scoff that came with listing the millions of reasons why Garnet was above such things as “dating,” especially dating human beings named “Jamie The Mailman”.

 

Rose may have had an infuriating penchant for “adorable” shiny new humans, but thankfully Garnet had never shown an interest.

 

“Garnet is already in a relationship,” Steven said.

 

Pearl felt her cheeks warm and her cold fingers raised to cover them as a smile tugged on her lips. Steven had noticed, too, then, the way that she Garnet had become such a unit. The perfect pairing. She had been studying humans’ interactions for long enough that she could see where Steven would have assumed she and Garnet had each taken on maternal roles in his life.

 

It simply made sense that he thought they were together. They were, when she thought about it in his human terms, the perfect formula to be his parents.

 

“Wait, really?” Connie asked.

 

“Well, yeah! She _is_ a relationship.”

 

“Oh, you mean ‘cause she’s a fusion,” Connie said, voice lowering just slightly.

 

That stopped Pearl short. Yes, Garnet was a fusion, but surely Steven had noticed the way that they fit together. Surely that’s what he was referencing. He had seen it too, the way that they excelled around each other. Hadn’t he?

 

“Ruby and Sapphire are so close that they can’t stand to be apart,” Steven said.

 

Pearl felt something tight digging into her insides, something aching and cold, like foreboding weather, or the feeling of being off-center like a crack in her gem. If she and Garnet were getting to that level of love for each other, like she thought they were, surely Steven would have noticed? Surely he would have mentioned that, right? Surely _Garnet_ would say something. _Right_?

 

The thought that perhaps these feelings were one sided occurred to her for the first time, and suddenly she thought she might poof out of existence with how sharp the pain in her chest felt.

 

“So I guess this date with Jamie is out of the question,” Connie said.

 

_Yes_ , Pearl thought, _it absolutely is_.

 

“Three’s a crowd,” Garnet said offhandedly, and Pearl buckled.

 

_Not again_.

 

She couldn’t believe that she had deluded herself into thinking someone would choose her _again_ , and the ache that had begun in her chest seemed to radiate throughout her gem until she thought it might shatter with the pressure building behind it.

 

Her legs carried her back to the temple doors, and she didn’t care who noticed her exit when she flitted from the doorway and into the tinkling, serene water of her room.

 

* * *

_Three’s a crowd_.

 

Pearl made a noise of disgust at her own blindness. Past experiences trying to tag along with Rose during her era of everything Greg Universe had spoken to three being not only crowded, but suffocating. That was nothing like how she felt around Garnet, though. They fit with each other as easily as existing. Ruby and Sapphire loved her individually, there was no reason why the sum of their parts and more would feel any differently.

 

She stopped herself short at the thought. She had no right, no entitlement to Garnet’s love, she reminded herself. Moreover, Garnet was her own person. Just because Ruby and Sapphire loved her made Garnet more inclined to _like_ her, yes, but fall in love with her? That was entirely in the air.

 

When Pearl exited the temple again, night had fallen and darkness swelled in the sky with nothing but the spatter of stars and the moon to cast any light onto the beach. She walked out onto the edge of the water and daintily lowered herself down onto the sand. The wind was gentle tonight, so she was safe from any surprise splashes. The sound of the peaceful outdoors at night served well to quell any residual upset, and she ran her fingers through the sand rhythmically, back and forth, to the movement of the water. A gesture of self-comfort.

 

She was unaware that she had company until Garnet’s silhouette dropped down beside her, and the shock that ran up her arms and spine made her jump a bit.

 

“I’ve hurt you.” Garnet stated, not allowing any space for small talk or for Pearl to beat around the bush while pretending that everything was fine. Apparently not, because Garnet would not have said anything had the feeling snarling rabidly in her gut not caused some catastrophe down the line. She wondered what the future Pearl would have ended up doing had Garnet not intervened in this moment. Maybe something abhorrent like lying her way into fusion. Something churned in her gut at how disgusting the thought made her feel— mainly because she wouldn’t put it past herself to rationalize something like that in the first place.

 

“It’s okay,” Pearl said instead of lying. That would have been futile, lying to a clairvoyant.

 

“No. It’s not.” Garnet reached up to flick her hand across her eyes, sending her luminescent shades sparkling into nonexistence. The light motes floated out into the air around them before disappearing entirely. When she turned her upper body to almost entirely face Pearl, all three of her eyes were open and earnest. The concern that Pearl saw there was surprising, though it should not have been.

 

Back and forth, Pearl’s hands went through the sand.

 

“I assumed things,” Pearl said. “You never gave any indication that you felt any way for me that was more than platonic. It’s not your fault I assumed,” she rationalized. Her voice was factual, betraying none of the inner turmoil that stirred violently in her chest.

 

“But it is my fault for never noticing. You have to understand, there has never been any part of me that felt lonely, that has longed for someone the way that single gems do,” Garnet said.

 

Pearl drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her shins, effectively closing her body language off, but Garnet hastily continued.

 

“ _But_ that does not mean I can’t. I just have to be given the opportunity to. Now that I know, we can try to be something together, but I couldn’t have come to those feelings on my own, Pearl, you have to know that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with you or how you feel.”

 

“What happened to three being a crowd?” Pearl couldn’t help from muttering out bitterly.

 

“It’s just two when it’s you and me. ‘Three’s a crowd’ is an expression I used to get it out of Connie’s mind that I would tolerate their little friend. I am an individual. I can love independently of Ruby and Sapphire, and I don’t have to ask their permission.”

 

Pearl stared out into the water for a long moment, letting Garnet’s words, and their meaning, rain over her. She watched the rhythmic push and pull of the ocean as her own hands danced back and forth in the sand. Eventually her motions stopped, and she turned her head to rest her cheek against her drawn knees and look at Garnet.

 

She was staring back at her, all three eyes wide and waiting for something, possibly anything, from Pearl. She looked so put together, so impossibly fused for so long. Pearl couldn’t help but wonder what it felt like to be so utterly complete— so whole— at all times. Would they end up as Sardonyx permanently decades down the line like Ruby and Sapphire? Was that what Garnet could see if Pearl only said yes?

They hadn’t fused in so long. Pearl ached for it like a woman starved, and that scared her so deeply.

 

“Did you see something?”

 

Garnet’s face turned into one of confusion, “What?”

 

“Did you see something happening— something bad— if you didn’t come talk to me?” Pearl asked.

 

“Yes, but I was already halfway out here before the vision even got that far. You stormed into your room and didn’t come out for _hours_ after you overheard me talking with Steven and Connie. I don’t need future vision to put two and two together.”

 

_Oh_. Pearl thought.

 

“But there was one? A vision?” Pearl asked.

 

Garnet finally looked away and out to the water with pursed lips. She was silent for a long moment, as still as she could be.

 

“It won’t happen,” she said.

 

Pearl turned her head downward until her forehead rested on her knees, eyes squeezed shut.

 

“How bad was it?”

 

Pearl waited with bated breath for the answer, shoulders tensed and hands stilling in the sand to squeeze it tightly in her palms.

 

“That won’t be you, Pearl. We can’t blame ourselves for outcomes that we don’t allow to come into fruition. Telling you would only make you feel like you have something to apologize for. That future blinked out of existence the moment you turned to look at me.”

 

Garnet’s voice was low and gentle, and when Pearl turned to look at her once more, Garnet’s hand was extended across the sand, palm upward. Her gem— Sapphire’s gem— glinted dully in the moonlight.

 

Pearl released the sand balled up in her hand in order to take it, feeling the cold cut of the gem press comfortingly into her palm. Their fingers laced together, and Pearl felt closer to wholeness than she had in decades.

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Endless thanks for the prompt Ambrena!! This one was a joy to write.
> 
> Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting and investing in this hobby of mine, I appreciate you all to the moon and back!
> 
> Let me know what you thought in a comment or over on tumblr (bakedgarnet.tumblr.com)
> 
> Much love!


End file.
